Two perennial Skyline Conference powerhouses--Old Westbury and Farmingdale–suffered stunning early exits in the first-round of the Skyline Conference tournament. Both came on their home field.
The day began with No. 4 seed Old Westbury taking on No. 5 seed Mount St. Mary’s, who entered with an overall record of 13-26 (9-9 in conference).
The Panthers sent Trey Pizzutello to the mound.
The Knights got out to an early 1-0 lead on an RBI single by Chris Introcaso to score Nick Rizzo (Smithtown East ’16). The Panthers responded quickly with a run in the the bottom half of the third on an RBI double by Liam Slattery to score Jesse Matos.
Pizzutello settled in and was dominant over the next several innings, but he was matched zero for zero by his counterpart, Blake Keenan, who had been struggling with a 6.09 ERA entering the day. Keenan worked quick, threw strikes and forced many easy outs.
The game got interesting as Pizzutello worked out of a first & third jam in the seventh, but the Panthers couldn’t capitalize in the home half when Nick Balfe lined a single to left field.
In the eighth inning, Pizzutello got the first batter out but allowed a single to Introcaso, who then stole second. After a strikeout, it appeared he would get out of the inning on a routine grounder but it was muffed by shortstop Jesse Matos to put runners on the corners. A walk loaded the bases to bring up Kevin Edgar, who brought home two runs with a single to left.
Kevin Edgar lines a two-run single and Mount Saint Mary’s takes a 3-1 lead in the eighth pic.twitter.com/zx8dZPepIg
aXcess Baseball (@axcessbaseball) May 3, 2017
They added another run on an RBI single by Peter Knights to extend the lead to 4-1–which wound up being crucial.
In the bottom of the ninth, the Panthers’ bats woke up.
Dean Sheridan ripped a single to left and he scored on an RBI triple to the left-center field gap by Paul Rapoli to make the score 4-2. After pinch-hitter Giovanni Carbone struck out, Rapoli scored on a wild pitch to make it 4-3.
Nick Balfe came to the plate representing the tying run, but he grounded out to second base to end the game–and the season–for the Panthers with a record of 20-16.
“We knew coming in we had a good shot,” said Keenan. “Especially with their suspended players–that was pretty key I think. It was just an all-around team effort. It was awesome!” he added.
Keenan was gleaming from ear-to-ear as he went on to say “Our confidence is through the roof…through the roof! This is absolutely amazing!”
They advance to face No. 1 ranked St. Joseph’s at 11 a.m. on Friday.
I headed over to Farmingdale expecting them to take care of business against the United States Merchant Marines Academy, but they were trailing 2-0 in the top of the eighth, with Andrew Spinnenweber working on a two-hit shutout.
Ace Matt Seelinger, who was expected to start on Friday, was summoned from the bullpen to work the ninth inning to keep the Mariners at bay. He did just that, firing a shutout inning with two strikeouts as the Rams came to the plate in the ninth desperate to extend their season.
Freshman star Vinny Rice led off the inning with a walk and it appeared the Rams would work their magic that enabled them to win seven consecutive Skyline Conference titles. Senior Dalton McCarthy came up to the plate representing the tying run–he was leading the team in HR (3) and RBI (30). He struck out on strikes, as did the following batter, Nick Osburn.
Down to their last out, Joseph Roche, had a tremendous at bat. He fouled off pitch-after-pitch until he saw one he liked. He gave it a deep ride down the line and it had a chance to get out of the yard, but it went just foul. He wound up drawing a walk on a 3-2 breaking ball that just missed the strike zone.
Final: Merchant Marine Academy 2, Farmingdale 0
Farmingdale is eliminated pic.twitter.com/DbmZ9MjWxC
aXcess Baseball (@axcessbaseball) May 3, 2017
The following hitter, Ryan Osborne, came to the plate with the tying runs on base but he flew out to center for the final out. The Rams suffered a shocking upset and finished their season at 21-16.
